Kamaboko is a traditional Japanese food,made from raw or frozen surimi.The traditional heating method for kamaboko is mainly boiling,steaming,and frying.Since the 1970s,microwave heating has been considered a very promising heating method in kamaboko process.The improved efficiency allowed by the drastic shortening of the setting (suwari) time by microwave heating will provide great economic benefits.However,because of the high heating rate of microwave heating,it has until now been used mainly as the preliminary heating method in a two-step heating processing,since direct microwave heating results in inferior kamaboko.As well,the strength of kamaboko gels heated by microwaves has not been clarified.